Last week the San Francisco Parent Political Action Committee (Parent PAC) proudly endorsed Emily Murase , Mark Murphy , and Shamann Walton for Board of Education for the November 2014 election. The Parent PAC was impressed with all three candidates’ extensive history of advocating for children and better public schools in all neighborhoods in San Francisco.

At the same meeting, the Parent PAC also endorsed Board of Education Commissioners’ Sandra Fewer and Rachel Norton’s resolution to change the “tie-breakers” in the public school assignment system. The resolution calls for “flipping” the Census Tract Integration Preference (CTIP 1) and the “Neighborhood Preference” tie-breakers. If this resolution is adopted by the school board, it will result in families having a higher probability of getting assigned to their “attendance area” school. City-wide schools and programs (Immersion programs and K-8 schools) will be unaffected. The Parent PAC hopes that this small change will give San Francisco’s families more predictability regarding where their child will attend kindergarten. For more information, please read Jill Tucker’s article about the proposed change.

Finally, the Parent PAC is pleased to announce that on Tuesday, July 22, the Soda Tax was officially placed on the November, 2014 ballot. The Soda Tax is a $.02 per ounce tax on sugar sweetened beverages. Recent data indicates that if passed, the Soda Tax will reduce consumption of sugary beverages in San Francisco by up to 31% while simultaneously raising up to $54 million earmarked for nutrition, active recreation, and education. This tax will take a 2/3 majority of San Francisco voters to pass. You can find more information at www.choosehealthsf.com .

The Parent PAC was founded by and for San Francisco parents and is committed to giving parents a voice in the political process to positively impact the lives of all San Francisco families. The Parent PAC supports and promotes city candidates, measures, and policies that will most effectively ensure high quality education for every child in every neighborhood, increase access to affordable youth programs that support working families and enrich the lives of our children and sustain healthy, safe and vibrant communities city-wide. We can’t do this work alone, please consider contributing to the Parent PAC so we can make San Francisco a city where families can thrive!

Having a good summer? We hope it’s filled with lots of watermelon and laughs, with bee stings and sunburns at a minimum.

We want to let you know what the SF Parent PAC has been up to, to keep you in the loop. As a Political Action Committee for San Francisco’s parents, we’re busy trying to make our city a place where families can thrive.

This is what we worked on in the past year:

We helped re-elect Sandy Fewer, Rachel Norton, and Jill Wynns to the School Board, raising close to $45,000 and sending two mailers to some 50,000 households.

We supported a parks bond measure called Prop B, which ensures almost $200 million will be invested in our city’s park and recreation infrastructure. Most of the funding will go to traditionally underserved neighborhoods in the Southeastern part of the city.

We strongly supported building new soccer fields behind the Beach Chalet in Golden Gate Park, which were approved by the California Coastal Commission. The new fields will mean many more kids will get a chance to play in improved conditions.

We successfully lobbied City Hall to fully Fund the Public Education Enrichment Fund which will make sure every public elementary school will have a full time Physical Education teacher and librarian in the upcoming school year.

We helped pass Prop 30, which gives California’s public education system more funding.

These are our priorities going forward:

The reauthorization of the Public Education Enrichment Fund, which dedicates some City funds to ensure sports, arts, music and libraries in our public schools.

The reauthorization of the Children’s Fund, which sets aside some property tax funds for a wide array of children and youth programming, including parks and recreation, afterschool programming, athletics, academic enrichment, and more. . .

Analyzing the school district’s education reform application with the federal government.

Looking for outstanding candidates to run for School Board in 2014.

A special note on Afterschool Care:

Finding good and reliable afterschool care is difficult for all working parents. It doesn’t matter where you live or what you make. While some schools offer great programs for all students, too many don’t. We believe every school can be like Commodore Sloat and Jose Ortega, offering the same level of high quality afterschool programming for all. We are already talking to officials on the school board, at the school district, and City Hall to make “Afterschool for All” at every school a reality.

Two Mailers Funded by San Francisco Parent PAC Provide Independent Support

With 100 percent of precincts reporting, San Francisco Parent PAC-endorsed candidates Sandra Lee Fewer, Jill Wynns, and Rachel Norton were re-elected to the San Francisco Board of Education, beating back a heavily-financed effort by United Educators of San Francisco (UESF), the district’s teachers’ union, to defeat them. Matt Haney was elected to the fourth seat.

The three incumbents were targeted by the union largely because all three of them voted in February 2012 to set aside seniority rights and protect 70 teachers in low-performing schools from layoffs. In a tense exchange at the February 28 vote, UESF President Dennis Kelly told the school board that their vote would “not be forgotten [nor] forgiven.” Four months later, the union leadership made good on its threat and recommended four political newcomers over the experienced incumbents, saying it was time for a “new school board.”

The San Francisco Parent PAC, a group of San Francisco parents seeking to support family-friendly policies and elected officials, disagreed, and was the first organization to endorse the three incumbents, undertaking an aggressive effort to educate elected officials, political organizations, educational leaders and parents about the importance of this School Board election. The San Francisco Democratic Party, the Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club, and major San Francisco daily newspapers all followed suit.

“Commissioners Fewer, Norton, and Wynns are intelligent and independent elected officials that courageously supported smart public policy that placed interests of children before the narrow focus of UESF leadership,” said Tajel Shah, Parent PAC President and a public school parent. “Sadly, that single vote over Superintendent Zones, a vote that protected District investment and resources flowing to our most troubled schools, earned them the ire of Union leadership – they became public enemies one, two, and three.”

“Early on, the Parent PAC knew it had mobilize to support the incumbents, and we did, promoting them at the important citywide organizations and to elected officials. We raised approximately $40,000 to send out two pieces of mail, reaching almost 50,000 voters citywide.

Let’s be clear: the Parent PAC will support elected officials that support children, teachers and our schools first, even if threatened by special interests groups. We will knock on doors, talk with parents, and raise money to support these candidates, period.”

THE SAN FRANCISCO PARENT PAC STORY:

In 2010, a group of involved public school parents met to discuss how parents—as key, yet relatively unrepresented stakeholders in our public schools—could play an influential role in the decisions that affect kids and families.

Today, San Francisco Parent Political Action Committee (PAC) is working hard to give parents a voice in the political process through community outreach, and by supporting candidates and ballot measures that will help our kids thrive.

San Francisco – The San Francisco Parent Political Action Committee has endorsed the following candidates for the November 2012 Board of Education election: Rachel Norton, Jill Wynns, Sam Rodriguez and Sandra Fewer.

The SF Parent PAC has also taken positions on three ballot initiatives:

YES on Prop B: Clean and Safe Neighborhood Parks Bond (San Francisco)

YES on Prop 30: Statewide Schools and Local Public Safety Protection Act

Founded by and for San Francisco parents, San Francisco Parent Political Action Committee is committed to giving parents a voice in the political process to positively impact the lives of all San Francisco families.